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by Freddie Mooche - Senior Financial ColumnistBoots & Coots (AMEX: WEL) CEO, Jerry Winchester, seemed delightedly surprised after learning that Prudential was returning $3.8 million of profits.

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Indeed, containment of the spill was at first delayed by Ogoni youths, who put the demand to the assesment team that visited Ogoniland. The team included two commissioners of the Rivers State government, as well as a member of the Rivers State House of Assembly. Other members of the team were Shell's site engineers and experts from Boots and Coots, the American oil well company. Last December, engineers from Boots and Coots helped stop a similar flow from a Shell well in Delta State, after it was vandalised by unknown persons.

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In Wisconsin, however, where venture capital firms are all towards the end of their investment cycles, there was no significant investment activity for the third quarter. Overall, Midwestern states saw investments of $144 million, up from $119 million in the second quarter, with Minnesota and Missouri leading the way. Michigan surged to third place for the quarter driven by a single firm that raised $30 million. Overall, Minnesota, Ohio and Missouri continued to lead the region for investments in 2005.

Banc Of America Investment Aug 15, 2003 (AXcess News) - Boots & Coots International Well Control, Inc. (AMEX: WEL) received $3.8 million from The Prudential Insurance Company of America from sales of WEL stock within the last six months.In what was seemed like an ironic turn of events, Prudential's surrender of the profits made from swings in Boots & Coots stock even suprized the company.Jerry Winchester, the Company's Chief Executive Officer stated: "While it is unfortunate that Prudential inadvertently incurred this liability, we are impressed with Prudential's candor and prompt payment. Obviously, this is a significant unanticipated benefit to the Company."

Thanks to wise investments and conservative withdrawals, this fund grew from an initial $17 million to over $35 million in 1999.

Banking Investment While Winchester was obviously pleased by Prudential's payment, it was only a few weeks before that Prudential was breathing down Boots & Coots neck as its loan payment fell into default.

At June 30, 2001, ScanSoft reported ending cash balances of $8.0 million and no debt, $0.5 million better than the $7.5 million guidance announced on July 2, 2001. The Company began the quarter with $2. term debt of $2.6 million. "This second quarter improvement of nearly $8 million in our net cash position is the result of a $5 million equity investment from the State of Wisconsin Investment Board and strong, positive operating cash flows of approximately $3 million, " said Tivnan.

Investment Solution Strategic The well control company has had a running on again, off again affair with Prudential, only recently announcing on July 2nd (see, "The Nine Lives of Boots & Coots") that it had cured its latest default. As part of the agreement, Boots & Coots agreed to issue approximately $2.4 million of new subordinated notes to Prudential representing past due interest, with the option through December 31, 2003, to pay in kind the interest on the subordinated notes accruing through that period.The Company further agreed to accelerate the optional conversion date for approximately 33% of the Company's outstanding Series E Preferred Stock, all of which are held by Prudential, to January 1, 2004, from the original optional conversion date of December 27, 2005.Wall Street can only speculate on how Prudential's recent share sale pressures affected AMEX: WEL's share price. The well control company has been using its stock to solve its debt obligations, having issued 5.5 million shares of common stock to repay Specialty Finance, which was owed $1.4 million at that time.

According to the MoneyTree report, the life science sector in total had investments in 155 companies in the third quarter for an average investment size of $10.1 million per company versus total VC average investment of $7.4 million per company. Another area of interest to us is the investment by stage of development.

Investment Banking Services Boots & Coots is one of the few small cap companies that has sufficient trading volume to warrant creditors' acceptance of shares for debt. Its 200-day moving average exceeds the majority of companies in its market cap range and several times in the last 12 months it was the volume leader in stocks priced under $5.00 a share. (see chart below)

Bank Investment At the time of the annouced loan default cure with Prudential and payoff of the Specialty Finance loan, CEO Jerry Winchester said, "Reaching this agreement with Prudential is a key accomplishment in Boots & Coots' objective to restructure its debt. We will continue our efforts toward simplifying the Company's financial structure. The management team at Boots & Coots remains committed to this objective while improving our operating performance."

Alternative Investment Now that the street's gotten a glimpse into Winchester's thoughts wth the surprise rebate from Prudential, investors can see his aim; when the paper runs out, print some more.

Online Investment Services If Winchester really wanted to paper the town, his company would be on the look out for a cashflow stream of acquisitions. His management style is one that supports Winchester's ability to lead under pressure, that same style combined with the market liquidity of Boots & Coots stock puts the potential for expansion at hand if dilution is thrown to the wind.

Accompany Essential Investment Only time will tell what Winchester's got up his sleave next.

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